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THE FISHERIES OF CHINA 
J- 

By Wei-Ching W. Yen 

Second Secretary Imperial Chinese Legation, Washington, D. C. 

Address before the Fourth International Fishery Congress 
held at Washington, U. S. A., September 22 to 26, 1 908 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES : : : VOL. XXVlll, P. 367-373 
Document No. 664 ::::::::::::::::: Issued February. 1910 



B. B. F. 1908—24 



367 



MAR 2 isio 






THE FISHERIES OF CHINA. 



By WEI-CHING W. YEN, 
Second Secretary Imperial Chinese Legation, Washington, D. C. 



Mr. President, Fellow-Delegates to the Fourth International 
Fishery Congress: My colleagues and I deem it a great honor to participate 
in the proceedings of this assembly, and our only regret is that owing to unex- 
pected circumstances two others were prevented from leaving Shanghai, thus 
reducing by one-third the strength of our delegation. Doctor Smith, the dis- 
tinguished and learned secretary-general of this congress, has very courteously 
requested us to address you in a general way on the fisheries of our Empire — 
for various reasons so little known to the outside world. While it is true our 
principal object in attending this congress has been to avail ourselves of the 
opportunity of obtaining information from the distinguished assembly present 
on all questions pertaining to fisheries, it is also our object to inform the 
world of the efforts being made in our country to investigate the conditions 
of our fishing industry, to collect statistics, to study its needs and defects, 
to introduce new types of vessels and fishing apparatus and methods, and to 
initiate legislation and regulation — in short, to organize and develop the industry 
and to place the culture and propagation of fishes on a scientific basis. 

The history of fisheries in our country, like that of many other things, is an 
old one. Our ancient classics refer to the times when our primitive ancestors 
tied ropes together to form fishing nets, and mention the appointment, several 
centuries before the Christian era, of special officials to rule over and protect 
our fishermen. The first statesman that recognized the importance of the 
fishing industry was Chiang Tzu-ya, who lived in the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
turies B.C., and who rose to eminence from an humble home on the coast. It 
is said that this wise and virtuous angler, then 80 years of age, was fishing with 
a straight piece of iron, upon which the fishes readily allowed themselves to be 
caught, when the Emperor Wen Wang discovered him, and for twenty vears he 
served his imperial master faitlifully and successfully. Through his ardent 
efforts and wise planning, fishing first became an important industry among our 
people, and with it also grew up its allied industry, the manufacture of salt, 
without which the former would have been seriously crippled for want of pre- 
servative facilities. 

369 



370 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

Our most ancient pisciculturist was Tao Chu Kung, who lived in the fifth 
century B. C. His method of fish culture combined both knowledge and 
ignorance. He dug a pond of the size of an acre, leaving nine small islands 
scattered about. In the pond he placed 20 female carps 3 feet in length and 4 
male ones of similar size. This was done in the month of March. In March 
of the following year there were found 5,000 fishes one foot long, 10,000 two 
feet long, and 15,000 three feet long. In the third year the number had been 
multiplied ten or twenty times, while in the fourth year it was not possible to 
keep count. The nine islands were to deceive the fishes, who would beheve 
that they were in the big ocean traveling around the nine continents. 

Pisciculture in our country has been confined to fresh water kinds. The fry 
are fed with the yolk of eggs, with very fine bran, or with beans ground to a 
powder. When the fish reach the length of a foot or so, they are transferred 
to a pond, where they are fed with young grass. It is considered advisable 
not to have the ponds too deep for fear of the water getting too cold for 
the young fish, and certain plants and trees are grown around and over the 
pond for various purposes and with various objects. For instance, it is believed 
that the dew from the plaintain leaves has a medicinal effect on the fishes, the 
berries of a certain tree are relished by the young fishes as a food, the grape 
vines which cover the pond prevent birds from polluting the water, and the 
luxuriant growth of the hibiscus along the edges repels the invasion of beavers. 
Of course, all these beliefs and theories are not scientific, but are based on tra- 
dition and experience. 

With the division of the people of the Empire into four distinct classes — 
scholars, agriculturists, artisans, and merchants — the men and women who 
followed the trade of fishing for a livelihood were placed in an anomalous posi- 
tion, in that they were not included in any of the four classes. Thus sociall}- 
ostracised to a certain extent, they clung more and more to themselves, forming 
groups and colonies of their own along the coasts and on isolated and rocky 
islands. They lived in a world of their own, knowing nothing of the affairs of 
their country and caring less. To this day they do not come into direct contact 
with their countrymen on the mainland or in the interior, disposing of their 
catches of fish to fishmongers, who go out to them during the fishing season 
with silver or with the necessaries of life in exchange for the fishes. 

Throughout our history the importance of the fishing industry has been 
dwarfed by its allied industry, the manufacture of salt, which, having been 
transformed into a government monopoly, has engrossed the attention of the 
official and merchant classes. 

In discussing the fisheries of our country attention must be called to the 
difference in taste between our people and those of the West. In the first place, 
our epicures do not care much for deep-sea fishes, and a fish like the salmon 
would not at all appeal to our palates. We delight in eating those of the finny 



THE FISHERIES OF CHINA. 37I 

tribes whose meat is soft and fine, and they are to be caught in rivers, brooks, 
lakes, ponds, and the surface of the ocean. Another factor which has checked 
the development of deep-sea fishing has been the lack of rapid transportation 
facilities and of refrigerative means, necessitating the preservation of deep-sea 
fishes in salt before they could be sent inland. On the other hand, there are 
products of the sea which are regarded by us as delicacies of the table, but which 
have little or no consumption in the West. Just to mention a few well-known 
ones, the fins of the shark, the beche-de-mer, the cuttlefish, the jellyfish, the 
scallop, and the awabe form important articles of domestic commerce, but are 
not bought or sold to any extent in the West. Many people of the West poke 
fun at us for what may be termed our motley taste for fish food. They declare 
that we are omnivorous, as far as eating the products of the sea is concerned. 
It seems to us that if the standard of civilization is partly to be measured by 
the ability and ingenuity of the people to maintain life by utilizing the variety 
of foods placed at its disposal, then we have helped to solve one of the important 
problems of life. We have found so many of the finny tribes suitable for food 
and capable of being transformed into delicious dishes that it is possible for us 
to have a fresh species on our table every day during the year. 

The more common of the edible fishes in our country are the perch, mack- 
erel, sturgeon, goby, pomfret, eel, gudgeon, shad, sole, mullet, flounder, herring, 
carp, bream, etc. 

With our dense population it is a matter of necessity that we St-.k our fnnrl 
from the waters as well as from the air and the land. As a writer has said, " All 
waters are vexed with our fisheries. Our nets and other contrivances for 
capturing fish display great ingenuity, and most of them are admirably adapted 
for the purpose (and no wonder, with our centuries of experience and experi- 
mentation). The right to fish in running streams and natural waters is open 
to all, with a few exceptional cases, while artificial reservoirs, as ponds, pools, 
tanks, tubs, etc., are brought into available use; rice fields near tide water are 
turned into fish ponds in winter. As to the modes of securing the inhabitants 
of the deep, they are killed with the spear, caught with the hook, scraped up 
by the dredge, ensnared by traps, and captured by nets; they are decoyed to 
jump into boats by painted boards, lifted by lifting nets, and dived for by 
birds — for the cormorant seizes what his owner could not reach." The last- 
named method is unique, I believe, in the world, and in our country is confined 
to one family, the Liu family. The fishes caught, however, are limited to those 
of creeks and small streams and of unpalatable kinds, bought and eaten only by 
very poor people. 

With the spread and growth of new ideas through intercourse with western 
nations, the possibilities of the fishing industry have become more and more 
apparent to our leaders, and it is realized that for a proper development the 
whole industry must be thoroughly organized and all modern improvements in 



372 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

the way of vessels, apparatus, and methods of fishing, aquiculture, etc., must 
be introduced. A bureau of fisheries, modeled much after the pattern of the 
West, with headquarters in Shanghai and branches in Mukden, Tientsin, 
Chefoo, Canton, and Foochow, has been established. The maritime prov- 
inces of Fengtien, Shantung, Chekiang, Kiangsu, Fukien, and Kuangtung have 
interested themselves in the work of this bureau. Investigation has been 
made of the different types of vessels, nets, and other apparatus employed in 
the industry, of the groups of fishermen and their methods of fishing, of the 
habits and rules and traditional usages obtaining among fishermen, with a view 
to governmental legislation and regulation, and also of the numerous islands 
and rocky coasts, which have for centuries been the resorts of our fishermen. 
The last-mentioned work has been carried out with the cooperation of instruct- 
ors from our naval college at Nanking. This fisheries bureau, more commonly 
known as the Kiang-Che Fishery Company, is authorized and recognized by our 
Ministry of Agriculture, Works, and Commerce, and has for commissioner-general 
the taotai of Shanghai. 

Established only about four years ago, the fisheries bureau is of course only in 
an embryo state, but in a general way much has been accomplished. The industry 
has been encouraged and developed in that protection has been afforded to the 
fishermen from attacks of pirates, from clandestine fishing by foreign vessels 
in Chinese waters, and from illegal exactions by official underlings. By the con- 
struction of houses for the storing of natural ice, the sale of fresh fish has greatly 
increased. A fishing vessel propelled by steam power was purchased, but so 
far the vessel has proved to be a failure from the financial point, for the simple 
reason that deep-sea fishes can not fetch good prices in our countrv. Two years 
ago the bureau succeeded in sending a very complete exhibit of the fisheries of 
our Empire to the Milan Exposition, and those of you who were present will 
remember the numerous models of fishing boats and fishing nets and the hun- 
dreds of finny creatures caught in Chinese waters that were placed on view. 
We have with us this time models of 19 different kinds of fishing nets, which you 
may examine at your leisure. 

It is proposed to establish a large fishery school at Woosung, the entrance 
to the city of Shanghai and the resort of numerous fishing boats, the funds 
being contributed by the governments of 1 1 provinces. The site has already 
been chosen and leveled, and construction of the building will begin in the imme- 
diate future. As a nucleus of this future college — for it is hoped the institution 
will grow into a college— we have already organized a school, with 100 pupils, 
mostly sons of fishermen. Connected with the school is a museum, and it is 
planned to construct an aquarium on a large scale. 

One of the more important duties of the bureau has been the collection of 
statistics, a branch of knowledge much neglected by us in the past. The work 
is full of difficulties, but from a cursory examination it is found that the total 



THE FISHERIES OF CHINA. 373 

number of salt-water fishing vessels is in round numbers 200,000, one-fifth of 
which hover on the coast of Chekiang Province. 

The canning and preser\dng in other ways of fish after new and improved 
methods is growing gradually into importance. In Canton, in particular, it is 
becoming a valuable industry. 

Such in brief is the state of the fisheries of our country. The activities of 
the bureau, you will notice, have been confined to the practical rather than 
the scientific side. There is a great deal more to be done, but at present its 
usefulness has been circumscribed by the lack of funds and of competent men. 
So many new measures are being introduced that necessarily the energies and 
resources of the Empire have been very much divided. 

In attending this congress my colleagues and I have had it impressed 
on us to gather as much information as possible, to visit the various centers 
of fish culture, and to meet the leading scientists and experts engaged in the 
work, from whom we expect much assistance and with whom we hope to work 
together in the future. 



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